Horrible Day for Rain
by Objective Mistress
Summary: Water as an element has uniquely sobering effects on events that are already subdued. Rain falls on Yin's funeral. Spoilers through 3.03 [Be the Peaf Prompt #56 – Rain]


**Title: **Horrible Day for Rain

**Rating:** K

**Word Count: **~900

**Summary:** Water as an element has uniquely sobering effects on events that are already subdued. Rain falls on Yin's funeral. Spoilers through 3.03 [Be the Peaf Prompt #56 – Rain]

**Author Note:** Inspiration drawn from Fullmetal Alchemist.

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"Mako I…" Korra struggled for words as she stood by Mako's side. "…I'm so sorry."

Rain pressed his hair down to his forehead. Droplets trickled down his nose down his neck as he hung his head. His clothing was soaked all the way through to his skin, but he didn't care. He could feel the water pooling in his shoes and drenching the red scarf he clutched in his hand. His gaze didn't leave her fresh gravestone, the gray stone darkening as water drenched it.

The Ba Sing Se cemetery was quaint, but crowded and small. The newer side of the cemetery featured well-kept graves, with flowers at almost every headstone as a sign of remembrance. Small headstones filled the small grassy area in neat rows.

He still didn't feel as if it was right to put it back around his neck again. After all, it was never truly his to begin with. The red scarf was his father's; Mako only ever kept it safe along with his memory all these years. Then, when they discovered that they had a grandmother, it only seemed right to give her something to remember her lost son by that wasn't a faded family picture.

Truly, he was thankful for the raindrops that mingled with the tears that still streamed down his cheeks. Rain was said to be cleansing; it certainly didn't feel that way. If anything, it masked a bit of his pain from Avatar Korra, who insisted to stay at his side when he stayed behind from the rest of the funeral group.

"Do you want me to…?" Korra made a waterbending gesture with her hands, "…Dry you off and keep you that way?"

Mako didn't even look up. "No."

Emotions within him bubbled up and flushed his entire body with a peculiar numbness. The scalding pain was simply too much to be ignored. Of course, he acknowledged how he was feeling despite his efforts to avoid it. But there was something particularly soothing about being heard by someone else.

"It's not fair," he spoke quietly and mostly to himself.

Avatar Korra seemed to understand and waited for him to continue. For someone that was apparently so spiritually disconnected, she sure did have a handle on him. For every sudden turn the river that was his life took, she stuck behind him through every line of rapids and each nail-biting waterfall.

His fist clenched tighter around the red scarf. "Two people have died with this scarf. Two people I _loved_." He inhaled sharply, "I used to think this thing would keep me and my loved ones safe."

There was a sort of steam release with each word he let go into the air. Each expression of his inner thoughts let just a fraction of the pressure building within to dissipate. It was just so unfair. His parents should have survived to this day. And Grandma Yin…they had only just been reunited.

"Why would I want it?" Mako slowly loosened his grasp and let the scarf fall to the wet ground.

"Hey now!" Korra snatched the swath of fabric off of the grass. "I'm going to keep this safe for you."

He honestly didn't want it. The wool just didn't feel right wrapped around his neck now. It felt constricting and suffocating with expectations of those that came before. These weren't things that time or precipitation could just wash away into the dirt to be absorbed into the earth. Things like this weren't as transient as a passing shower. Yin deserved to have the scarf all along, and far longer than she got to.

"Because one day," she folded the scarf carefully, "you'll want this. Eventually, the pain will wash away and you'll want this little token of where you came from. Loss hurts, but it's better to have had something so wonderful and lose it than never getting to feel that at all."

"Easy for you to say."

"Not really," she tucked the scarf under her arm. "I know what it's like to have people ripped from you."

Mako squeezed his eyes shut. He was utterly embarrassed he could be so callous to the Avatar that had to suffer through the loss of every single one of her past lives. He ran a hand through his drenched hair, slicking it back off of his forehead.

"You don't have to be here, _Avatar_ Korra."

Her title allowed him to keep his distance. After all, the Avatar belonged to the world and could never be his. But Korra on the other hand, was an amazing woman he enjoyed for a time that was far too short.

"I want to be," she shifted uneasily on her feet. "I'll always be here if you need me."

That's what scared him. Maybe in the span of a few weeks or months even, he could fend off the small leaks that periodically sprung up in the dam he built. Korra was a force of nature that with prorogued exposure would erode away his walls with swift moving water. He didn't need or want anyone to lean on; if he couldn't stand alone, what was he?

"Come on," she put a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go back. It's getting cold out here. I'll waterbend us dry inside."

As always, he followed after her.


End file.
